Reduced autobiographical memory specificity affects general distress through poor social support

Improving usual care outcomes in major depression in youth by targeting memory specificity: A randomized controlled trial of adjunct computerized memory specificity training (c-MeST)

OBJECTIVE

Extending on previous findings that computerized Memory Specificity Training (c-MeST) improves memory specificity and depressive symptoms in Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) in adults, this study aimed to assess the effects of c-MeST in youth with MDD on memory specificity and depression in addition to other treatment.

METHODS

Participants aged 15-25 (N = 359, 76 % female; M age = 19.2, SD = 3.1), receiving predominantly psychological therapy or counseling (85 %) and/or antidepressants (52 %) were randomized to usual care and c-MeST or usual care. Cognitive and clinical outcomes were assessed at baseline and at one, three, and six-month follow-ups.

RESULTS

The usual care and c-MeST group reported higher memory specificity at one-month (d = 0.42, p = .022), but not at three or six months (d's < 0.15, p's > 0.05). The rate of MDE was numerically lower in the c-MeST group at each follow-up time-point, but group was not a statistically significant predictor at one month (64 % usual care and c-MeST vs. 68 % usual care, OR = 0.81, p = .606), three months (67 % usual care and c-MeST vs. 72 % usual care, OR = 0.64, p = .327) or six months (55 % usual care and c-MeST vs. 68 % usual care, OR = 0.56, p = .266). The usual care and c-MeST group did report lower depressive symptoms at one month (d = 0.42, p = .023) and six-months (d = 0.84, p = .001), but not three-months (d = 0.13, p > .05).

CONCLUSIONS

c-MeST may reduce symptoms in youth with MDD when provided alongside other treatments. However, there are significant limitations to this inference, including high attrition in the study and a need for more data on the acceptability of the intervention.

Transdiagnostic and transtherapeutic strategies for optimising autobiographical memory

Our memories for past personally experienced autobiographical events play an important role in therapy, irrespective of presenting issue, diagnoses or therapeutic modality. Here, we summarise evidence for how autobiographical memory abilities can influence our mental health and the relevance of this for the treatment of mental health problems. We then guide the reader through principles and strategies for optimising autobiographical memory within treatment. We ground these recommendations within research for stand-alone interventions for improving autobiographical memory and from studies of how to support the formation and retrieval of therapeutic memories. Options are given for clinicians to guide clients in improving retrieval of autobiographical memories within treatment, for improving autobiographical memory for the therapeutic experience itself, and for creating improvements in autobiographical memory that endure post-treatment. We also provide worksheets for clinicians to use within treatment.

The Stories We Tell Influence the Support We Receive: Examining the Reception of Support-Seeking Messages on Reddit

Although social support facilitates coping and recovering from stressful life events, people do not always get the support that they need. Prior research suggests that the way one talks about stressful events to others may influence the support they receive. Given that people are increasingly relying on online communities for social support, this study adopted a person-centered approach (latent profile analysis) to examine how narrative variables related to the motivational themes, emotional content, and organizational structure of randomly sampled support-seeking messages (N = 495) posted on Reddit (r/Anxiety and r/Depression) influenced the quantity (number of comments and post score) and quality (type of support in comments) of support that they received. We identified five distinct narrative profiles of support-seeking posts, which in turn differentially predicted the quality, but not quantity, of social support people received. While commenters provided high levels of emotional support to all forms of posts, we found that coherence was an important determinant of esteem support. A combination of coherence, as well as agency and affective tone, were important determinants of instrumental, informational, and network support. The ways in which one talks about their problems influence the way others support them.

The influence of induced dysphoria on autobiographical memory specificity and social problem solving: Examining the role of executive function

Negative mood induction leads to reductions in autobiographical memory specificity (AMS) and social problem-solving (SPS). The aim was to establish if executive function contributes to changes in AMS and SPS following negative mood induction. Forty-four participants (study 1) completed the autobiographical memory test and measures of executive function (letter & category fluency) before and after a positive or negative mood induction (MI). Forty participants (study 2) completed the means-end problem solving task (MEPS) and (letter & category) fluency tasks before and after a positive or negative MI. In study 1, participants exhibited impaired AMS and fluency performance following a sad MI. Decrease in memory specificity pre-to post-MI was related to reductions in happy mood and letter fluency. In study 2, participants exhibited poorer performance on the MEPS and fluency tasks following a sad MI. Decreases in the number of relevant solutions generated on the MEPS pre-to post-MI was linked to increases in sad mood and decreases in letter fluency. In both studies, the influence of mood became non-significant once the effect of executive function was accounted for, which suggests that changes in AMS and SPS in response to induced mood were related to concomitant changes in executive function.

Social operant conditioning of autobiographical memory sharing

The memories for past autobiographical experiences that we share can influence relationship formation and consolidation with important implications for our mental health. However, little is known about how people's responses to our memories can influence subsequent memory sharing. Previous research examined how operant processes (i.e., punishment with aversive sounds) influence the sharing of memories for specific events from our past. Understanding the (social) mechanisms associated with difficulty sharing specific autobiographical memories is important given the association between these difficulties and a range of psychiatric diagnoses. We investigate the effects of verbal and non-verbal social operants on the willingness to share specific autobiographical memories. Participants shared memories with a confederate who coded their memories as specific or non-specific and responded in either an engaged/attentive, dismissive manner or gave no feedback depending on participants' assigned condition. Participants who were reinforced for sharing specific memories and punished for sharing non-specific memories, were more likely to share specific than non-specific memories compared to those who received no feedback. Reinforcement alone was not sufficient for modifying specificity. The ways that we respond to people when they share memories with us can influence their subsequent willingness to share specific events from their past.

Autobiographical memory and psychopathology: Is memory specificity as important as we make it seem?

Several decades of research have established reduced autobiographical memory specificity, or overgeneral memory, as an important cognitive factor associated with the risk for and maintenance of a range of psychiatric diagnoses. In measuring this construct, experimenters code autobiographical memories for the presence or absence of a single temporal detail that indicates that the remembered event took place on a single, specific, day (Last Thursday when I rode bikes with my son), or multiple days (When I rode bikes with my son). Studies indicate that the specificity of memories and the amount of other episodic detail that they include (e.g., who, what, and where) are related and may rely on the same neural processes to elicit their retrieval. However, specificity and detailedness are nonetheless separable constructs: imperfectly correlated and differentially associated with current and future depressive symptoms and other associated intrapersonal (e.g., rumination) and interpersonal (e.g., social support) outcomes. The ways in which the details of our memories align with narrative themes (i.e., agency, communion, identity) and the coherence with which these details are presented, are also emerging as important factors associated with psychopathology. The temporal specificity of autobiographical memories may be important, but other memory constructs warrant further attention in research and theory, especially given the associations, and dependencies, between each of these constructs. Researchers in this area must consider carefully whether their research questions necessitate a focus on autobiographical memory specificity or whether a more inclusive analysis of other autobiographical memory features is necessary and more fruitful. This article is categorized under: Psychology > Memory.

The power of negative and positive episodic memories

The power of episodic memories is that they bring a past moment into the present, providing opportunities for us to recall details of the experiences, reframe or update the memory, and use the retrieved information to guide our decisions. In these regards, negative and positive memories can be especially powerful: Life’s highs and lows are disproportionately represented in memory, and when they are retrieved, they often impact our current mood and thoughts and influence various forms of behavior. Research rooted in neuroscience and cognitive psychology has historically focused on memory for negative emotional content. Yet the study of autobiographical memories has highlighted the importance of positive emotional memories, and more recently, cognitive neuroscience methods have begun to clarify why positive memories may show powerful relations to mental wellbeing. Here, we review the models that have been proposed to explain why emotional memories are long-lasting (durable) and likely to be retrieved (accessible), describing how in overlapping—but distinctly separable—ways, positive and negative memories can be easier to retrieve, and more likely to influence behavior. We end by identifying potential implications of this literature for broader topics related to mental wellbeing, education, and workplace environments.

Reduced specificity and increased overgenerality of autobiographical memory persist as cognitive vulnerabilities in remitted major depression: A meta-analysis

Difficulty in accessing specific memories, referred to as reduced memory specificity or overgeneral memory (OGM), has been established as a marker of clinical depression. However, it is not clear if this deficit persists following the remission of depressive episodes. The current study involved a systematic review and meta-analysis of empirical studies with the aim of establishing whether remitted depression was associated with retrieving fewer specific and more overgeneral autobiographical memories. Seventeen studies were identified as eligible. The results indicated that people with remitted depression recalled fewer specific memories (k = 15; g = -0.314, 95% CI [-0.543; -0.085], z = -2.69, p = .007) and more categoric memories (k = 9; g = 0.254, 95% CI [0.007; 0.501], z = 2.02, p = .043) compared to people who had never been depressed. Given these deficits have elsewhere been shown to be prognostic of future depressive symptoms, these findings suggest that reduced memory specificity/overgeneral memory persists following remission and may be a risk factor for future episodes of depression in those that are in remission. The findings are discussed in terms of how this knowledge might influence clinical understanding of relapse prevention and maintenance of remission in those with a history of depression.

Positive Family Environment, General Distress, Subjective Well-Being, and Academic Engagement among High School Students Before and During the COVID-19 Outbreak

The COVID-19 pandemic has altered the family dynamics of most people worldwide as well as the mode in which students take classes. The impact of such changes on students’ well-being, academic engagement, and general distress remains unknown. Therefore, this study aims to test the structural relations among positive family environment (a measure of Positive Home-Based Parent Involvement [HBI]), subjective well-being (SWB), general distress, and academic engagement, focusing on Mexican high school students. A longitudinal study was conducted covering two time points: before (T1) and during (T2) the COVID-19 outbreak. A sample of 502 students answered questionnaires in T1 whereas 111 did so in T2. Analyses were conducted using Mplus software. Principal results showed that the positive and significant association between positive family environment and SWB did not substantially change from T1 to T2, whereas the relation between positive family environment and academic engagement became stronger. Data revealed that a positive family environment can play an important role in promoting academic engagement among adolescent students despite the risks brought about by sanitary lockdowns and the increase of family interactions. Results are discussed highlighting the importance of positive family environments and HBI on academic outcomes for Mexican high school students.

Reconciling a phenomenological with a functional approach to memory: narrative coherence and its social function

To date, the phenomenological and functional aspects of autobiographical memory have by and large been studied separately. This is quite remarkable, given that both can inform each other, and that investigating their interaction can add to the understanding of the (in)adaptivity of certain memory characteristics for our well-being. In other words, examining how particular features of autobiographical memory are adept or inept at serving specific functions, could help us to better comprehend and explain relations between memory and psychological well-being. We discuss previous attempts to integrate phenomenology with functionality and formulate three main directions for future research based on the current state of the art. The directions concern (1) focusing on functionality (adaptivity) and not merely on the use of memories in phenomenological work, (2) attention for the bidirectionality of the relation between phenomenology and functionality, and (3) the addition of narrative constructs like coherence to the traditional range of phenomenological features. We will illustrate our directions for the reintegration of phenomenology with functionality through the social function of coherent autobiographical memories. This framework could help to stimulate future empirical studies and pave the road for new clinical interventions to improve psychological well-being.

Self-defining memories-Narrative features in relation to adaptive and maladaptive personality traits (replication and extension of Blagov & Singer, 2004)

OBJECTIVE

Self-defining memories (SDMs) are units of life-story analysis, whose features resemble elements from narrative identity's factorial structure. To bridge narrative-identity and personality-trait domains, we conducted a replication and extension of prior research.

METHOD

We linked four SDM features - affect, specificity, meaning making, and content - to the Big Three trait domains of personality and psychopathology in a small sample that was well-powered for multilevel modeling (133 participants, 1330 SDMs).

RESULTS

Affect SDM affect correlated with indices of Positive Emotionality and Negative Emotionality, and narrative themes of contamination were associated with Negative Emotionality. Specificity SDM specificity vs. overgenerality related to Constraint and Negative Emotionality indices, lending support to the executive dysfunction and emotional disorder theories of overgeneral autobiographical memory. (Tests of the avoidance thesis of overgeneral memory were inconclusive.) Meaning making Explicit meaning making in SDMs reflected adaptive personality. It moderated (or buffered) the link between SDMs' affect and chronic emotional distress. Content The links between SDM content and traits suggest that SDMs reflect personal goals, whose fulfillment or frustration relate to psychological health.

CONCLUSIONS

This research serves replication purposes as well as the purpose of connecting two major domains of personality: narrative identity and adaptive and maladaptive traits.

Specificity and wealth of autobiographical memories in restrictive and mixed anorexic patients

The reduced specificity of positive and negative autobiographical memories observed in anorexic (AN) patients may reflect a global disturbance in their emotional information processing. However, their emotional difficulties may differ according to the subtype of AN, implying possible differences in the manifestation of autobiographical memory impairments. The aims of the study were (1) to confirm the autobiographical memory deficits in AN patients in terms of specificity and wealth of memories, and (2) to compare autobiographical deficits according to the AN subtype: restrictive type (AR) or binge/purging type (AB). Ninety-five non-clinical (NC) individuals and 95 AN patients including 69 AR and 22 AB patients were administered the Williams' and Scott's Autobiographical Memory Test. The results confirmed a lack of specificity regardless of emotional valence in the overall AN patient group without any distinction of subtype, which was linked to the number of hospitalizations. When the AN subtype was considered, AR patients demonstrated reduced specificity for negative memories only, suggesting differences in emotional functioning or in the mechanisms underlying reduced specificity between AR and AB patients. Furthermore, the overall AN group demonstrated lower variability and complexity in their memory content than the NC group. However, this difference in the complexity of recalled memories was only found in response to negative cues. When AN subtypes were considered, AR patients showed fewer complex memories than NC individuals. Beyond a reduced specificity, AN patients also depict a poverty in the range of event recall and a difficulty in developing narrative content. The clinical implications of such autobiographical memory deficits need to be further investigated.

Reasons to remember: A functionalist view on the relation between memory and psychopathology

Memory is under investigation as one of the core mechanisms of psychopathology. The traditional cognitive view of memory as a stable structure with a range of set characteristics can be complemented with a perspective that considers remembering as a behaviour that varies fluidly across contexts. Remembering may serve adaptation to the environment by fulfilling a directive function, a self-function and a social function. A failure to fulfil these functions may be a risk factor for psychopathology. Implications of the discussed functionalist perspective include the importance of reinforcing adaptive ways of remembering during early development, the possibility of treating maladaptive ways of remembering through contextual interventions and the added ecological validity of using ambulatory assessment methods.

Overgeneral and specific autobiographical memory predict the course of depression: an updated meta-analysis

Impairments in retrieving event-level, specific autobiographical memories, termed overgeneral memory (OGM), are recognised as a feature of clinical depression. A previous meta-analytic review assessing how OGM predicts the course of subsequent depressive symptoms showed small effects for correlations and regression analyses when baseline depressive symptoms were controlled for. We aimed to update this study and examine whether their findings replicate given the decade of research that has been published since. A systematic literature review using the same eligibility criteria as the previous meta-analysis led to a doubling of eligible studies (32 v. 15). The results provided more precise estimates of effect sizes, and largely support the finding that OGM predicts the course of depressive symptoms. The effects were generally small, but significantly larger among clinical samples, compared to studies with non-clinical samples. There was some evidence that higher age was associated with stronger effects, and longer follow-up was associated with weaker effects. The findings on other moderating variables that were analysed were mixed. Continued research into this modifiable cognitive process may help to provide an avenue to better understand and treat highly prevalent and impactful depressive disorders.

The longitudinal association between individual differences in recall of positive specific autobiographical memories and daily cortisol

The present study examines the longitudinal association between cortisol (dys)regulation - mean cortisol awakening response (CAR) and area under the curve with respect to ground (AUCg) for total daily cortisol - and autobiographical memory. 135 participants (mean age at baseline = 16.1; Females = 78.5 %) provided cortisol samples (T1). Seven months later participants retrieved autobiographical memories cued by positive and negative words (T2). Four years subsequently, participants provided cortisol samples again (T3). The retrieval of more specific memories cued by positive words, but not negative words, was associated with higher AUCg four years later, independent of sex, recent life stressors and self-reported negative self-related cognitions. There were no associations between CAR and autobiographical memory. Neither AUC nor CAR at T1 predicted subsequent autobiographical memory abilities. People who retrieve more positive specific memories may be more likely to imagine and seek out positive experiences and this may be associated with higher cortisol levels.

Shared event memory in aging: Across-participants similarity of vividness judgements decreases with age

When they remember the same events, humans recollect common episodic traces. For making vividness judgements, older adults rely less than young adults on retrieved episodic details. Here, we examined the similarity of the subjective experience of remembering and the associated memory content across participants and we investigated age-effects. Young and older adults studied pictures associated with labels. At retrieval, participants judged the vividness of their memories and recalled pictures details. We examined the similarity of vividness judgements and memory recall across-participants. Across-participants similarity in vividness judgements was higher in young than in older adults, while no age-difference in the similarity of the richness of memory recall between participants was found. Together, these findings suggest that older adults' vividness ratings are less similar from one participant to another than those of young adults, which may be explained by how older adults use memory details to frame their sense of memory vividness.

The current state of memory Specificity Training (MeST) for emotional disorders

Memory Specificity Training (MeST) is an intervention developed from basic science that has found clinical utility. MeST uses cued recall exercises to target the difficulty that some people with emotional disorders have in recalling personally experienced events. MeST is simple enough to be delivered alongside traditional interventions or online by artificial intelligence. Currently, research indicates MeST's effects are immediate but short-lived, and there is limited research indicating its superiority over established interventions. Future investigations must establish the dosage and specific components of MeST that are necessary for clinically significant effects. Further, it must establish the secondary processes (e.g., problem-solving) that mediate between MeST-driven improvements in memory and symptoms. Similar interventions that build upon the idea of training autobiographical memory specificity are also emerging and warrant further investigation.

An Investigation of the Coherence of Oral Narratives: Associations With Mental Health, Social Support and the Coherence of Written Narratives

Research Questions

In a first research question, we examined whether the relations that are generally observed between the coherence of written autobiographical narratives and outcomes of mental health and social support, can be replicated for the coherence of oral narratives. Second, we studied whether the coherence of oral narratives is related to the coherence of written narratives.

Methods

Pearson correlations and t-tests were calculated on data of two separate studies to examine the research questions.

Results

First, only thematic coherence of oral narratives was significantly, although moderately, negatively associated to symptoms of depression, anxiety and negative social interactions. Second, the coherence of oral narratives was higher than the coherence of written narratives. Only the thematic coherence of oral narratives was positively associated with thematic and total coherence of written narratives. Furthermore, correlations between written and oral narratives were stronger for negative narratives as compared to positive narratives.

Discussion

The ability to elaborate emotionally and make meaning out of important life events in oral narratives is, to a certain extent, related to better mental health and more social support. Furthermore, thematic coherence may be a relatively stable feature of individuals' narrative styles that is reflected in narratives of different modalities. Nonetheless, these topics need to be further researched to overcome present limitations.

Specificity and detail in autobiographical memory retrieval: a multi-site (re)investigation

This investigation examined conflicting suggestions regarding the association between problems retrieving specific autobiographical memories and the tendency to retrieve the details of these memories. We also examined whether these tendencies are differentially related to depression symptoms. U.S., Belgian, Hong Kong and Japanese participants retrieved memories related to cue words. Responses were coded for if they referred to a specific event (i.e., an event lasting less than 24 h) and their details (What? Where? Who?). Across sites, and in meta-analyses, the retrieval of more specific memories was associated with retrieval of more details. Memories that were specific included more detail than non-specific memories. Across sites, retrieval of more specific memories and more detail was associated with less severe depression symptoms. Episodic specificity and detailedness are related but separable constructs. Future investigations of autobiographical memory specificity, and methods for alleviating problematic specificity, should consider measures of episodic detailedness.

How am I going to tell you this? The relations between social anxiety and narrative coherence

Recently, evidence has been increasing that individuals who are able to narrate coherently about their autobiographical memories, receive more positive social feedback, have higher-quality social relationships and are overall less likely to suffer from internalising psychopathology, like depression and anxiety. However, the relation between narrative coherence and social anxiety, in particular, has not been topic of research until now. This is remarkable, since the concern about negative evaluations by others in social situations is at the core of social anxiety. In the present experimental study (N = 68), we investigated in a two-by-two design how trait and state social anxiety are related to narrative coherence, as well as possible underlying mechanisms. In our study, neither trait nor state social anxiety, nor their interaction had the expected detrimental effect on narrative coherence. However, trait differences in the proposed mechanisms of social anxiety were in line with the literature. Results showed that trait social anxiety and thematic narrative coherence were indirectly negatively related, via the intervening effects of an increased internal focus on anxiety cues, an excessive external focus on negative social evaluation, larger working memory load, more rumination and more depressive symptoms. Limitations and recommendations for future research are addressed.

I like you better when you are coherent. Narrating autobiographical memories in a coherent manner has a positive impact on listeners' social evaluations

INTRODUCTION

We all have stories to tell. The stories that prevail in our conversations frequently concern significant past personal experiences and are accordingly based on autobiographical memory retrieval and sharing. This is in line with the social function of autobiographical memory, which embodies the idea that we share memories with others to develop and maintain social relationships. However, the successful fulfilment of this social function is dependent on phenomenological properties of the memory, which are highly inter-individually different. One important individual difference is memory coherence, operationalized as narrative coherence. The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of memory coherence on the social evaluations of listeners. We hypothesized that being incoherent in the sharing of autobiographical memories, would evoke more negative social evaluations from listeners, in comparison to coherently sharing autobiographical memories.

METHODS

In a within-subject experimental study, 96 participants listened to four pre-recorded audio clips in which the speaker narrated about an autobiographical experience, in either a coherent or an incoherent manner.

RESULTS

Results were in line with our hypotheses. Participants showed more willingness to interact, more instrumental support, more positive feelings, more empathy and more trust towards those narrators who talked in a coherent manner about their autobiographical memories, as compared to those that talked in an incoherent manner. Negative feelings in the listener were evoked when the speaker talked incoherently, but especially when it concerned a positive memory.

DISCUSSION

Results can be explained in terms of a reduction in the attraction effect when effortful processing is increased, which is in line with the dual processing theory of impression formation. Another explanation involves the idea that coherence is necessary to establish truthfulness in communication. The clinical relevance of these findings is further illustrated in light of the relation between social support and psychological well-being.

Social support from friends predicts changes in memory specificity following a stressful life event

Exposure to negative life stress has been associated with difficulty retrieving memories for specific autobiographical events, with important consequences for the emergence of emotional disorders. We examined whether social support can protect against the effects of negative events on memory specificity. University students (N = 143) were assigned to groups based on whether or not they experienced a negative stressor, operationalised as whether or not their recent exam performance was in line with their expectations. After receiving their exam results (T1), and one month later (T2), participants completed measures of memory specificity, their attitudes towards themselves and the occurrence of other stress-related events. Participants also completed a general measure of perceived social support from friends, family, and significant others, and an equivalent measure for social support related to performance. For participants who experienced an exam-related stressor, reduced performance-specific social support from friends was associated with reduced memory specificity at T2, even when accounting for T1 memory specificity, individual differences in attitudes towards self, the experience of additional stressors, and gender. No such relation was present for participants who did not experience a stressor. These findings provide new understanding of the influence of social variables on autobiographical memory specificity.